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[Starday, 30 Desnus, 4708 A.R. continued]
The Harrowed Heroes are in dire straits! Goldcape is unconscious, Yraelzin has a shape-changing serpent poised to bite his neck, and Anorak and The Reckoner have just encountered a *second* Vencarlo Orisini! But after The Reckoner realises this new Vencarlo is the fake, the impersonator smiles wryly and reveals herself to be Meliya Arkona! “You can’t blame a girl for trying,” she says in a cultured Vudrani accent. “How was I know to you know you would manage to retrieve the real Vencarlo from Sivit? The darksphinx doesn’t let her prey go lightly.” She nods in recognition of the group’s accomplishment, and then says that the real enemy is her brother, Glorio Arkona. She says that Glorio betrayed the group and notified her the instant they entered the Vivified Labyrinth, doubtless hoping that either they would kill her or she would kill them. She says that, together, they can confront Glorio, earning the adventurers their freedom and herself the rightful place as the sole head of House Arkona.
When The Reckoner
balks, Meliya begins to press. She says
she knows the group is at its weakest with Goldcape unconscious and her pet roc
effectively neutralized. Plus, she
explains, her “little spy” has been watching the group since they obtained it
from Verik Vancaskerkin and revealed themselves to be interesting new players
in Korvosa’s power struggles. To prove
the truth of her words, she drops a stunning fact: The Reckoner’s real
name! But despite the not-so-subtle
threat to reveal his secret identity to the world, The Reckoner is having none
of it. He strides up and smashes his
hammer into the surprised woman’s ribs!
She grunts in pain but doesn’t seem to be seriously hurt, and shakes her
head in mocking disappointment as she assumes a Vudrani martial arts stance!
The Reckoner and
Meliya duel off, with each finding it difficult to land a meaningful blow on
the other. The real Vencarlo Orisini,
using Goldcape’s magical rapier, joins in the fray. Meanwhile, Yraelzin feels the snake’s fangs
tear into his neck and he feels momentarily disoriented. The situation becomes even worse when Anorak
conjures magical darkness, making it impossible for the Priest of Razmir to
see! But Yraelzin hasn’t been idle
during his time as a hostage, as he’s secretly slipped the marble elephant
figurine out of his robes. He throws it
blindly in the darkness, and it careens through the illusory wall and lands
right behind Meliya. Suddenly, a massive
elephant trumpets its arrival and joins The Reckoner and Vencarlo in attacking
her! Still, she is incredibly nimble,
and even apparently solid blows seem to do little harm to her when they
land. Anorak dispels his darkness spell
and chops into the strange snake, simultaneously releasing a magical ray of
flame he had previously stored within it.
In an instant, Meliya’s spy is burnt to a crisp.
Anorak and Yraelzin rush over to help the others, but that only gives their foe a nefarious idea. “If you won’t stand by my side,” she says with a smile to The Reckoner, “then your friends will pay the price.” She dances out his reach and with a fearsome combination of kukri swings, throat punches, and roundhouse kicks kills Vencarlo! And then she continues her flurry of attacks on Yraelzin and Anorak, wounding both of them severely. The survivors respond with everything they have, but Meliya’s defences against blade and spell are just too strong. Faced with the imminent prospect of witnessing another death, The Reckoner finally relents. He lowers his battle-maul and agrees to her terms. “Thanks Ralph,” she says, flourishing her power. She says the group will need to be at full strength to help her defeat her brother, and says they should rest for now and she’ll return for them in the morning. She warns them to stay away from any bloodstones they see, as Glorio can magically look through them.
With Venarlo’s body in tow, the group return to the chamber where they freed Neolandus from the clutches of his three-faced torturer. The former (or, arguably, still) seneschal of Castle Korvoa is stricken by Vencarlo’s death and acknowledges that none of them may make it out of the Arkonas’ clutches alive. He says that one of them has to, however, if there is any chance of ever deposing Queen Ileosa and liberating the city from her insane cruelty. As Goldcape finally wakes from her magical slumber, Neolandus reveals the information that the Harrowed Heroes braved the quarantined Old Korvosa to discover.
When Neolandus confronted Ileosa about the king’s death, he explains, she sent Red Mantis assassins after him! Only through luck and a deep knowledge of the castle’s layout was he able to escape and then go into hiding with the artist Salvator Scream in Old Korvosa. While recovering from the attack, Neolandus says he pieced together everything he could think of that would explain Ileosa’s sudden personality change from a petulant queen to a scheming murderer and dictator. He explains that he knew she had been “borrowing” the treasury key to look through the city’s treasures for months, and that there are several old and obscure legends about the rooms below Castle Korvosa. One of the legends is that they were used to hide something of great power or terrible evil—the so-called “Midnight’s Teeth”, a sacred relic dating to the time when the Shoanti had occupied the ziggurat that Castle Korvosa is built upon. Neolandus relates how he connected that to a separate legend that hundreds of years ago, a blue dragon agent of Zon-Kuthon (the god of pain) named Kazavon ruled the land as a cruel tyrant until he was finally defeated and his remains scattered—but that some of his body parts, including the fangs, contained fragments of the dragon’s essence. Neolandus says he thinks the Midnight’s Teeth and Kazavon’s fangs could be one and the same, and match the description of the new crown she’s said to wear! If so, that power would explain how Marcus Endrin’s assassination attempt failed so spectacularly.
Neolandus says he
only has theories, however, and not proof.
As Korvosa’s founders didn’t think it was important to preserve much in
the way of Shoanti culture, there’s no way to research the history of the
legends about the Midnight’s Teeth and Kazavon within the city. But, he says, the Shoanti have very strong
oral traditions, and if anyone knows how much truth lies within the legend (and
what, if anything, can be done to break the crown’s power), it’s doubtless the
tribes in the Cinderlands—an area said to have been once ruled by Kazavon. Because the Shoanti have long distrusted
Korvosa and are suspicious of outsiders, they will doubtless view visitors as trespassers
and enemies. But Neolandus explains he knows
where they might be able to start: with the Skoan-Quah, the Tribe of the Skull,
a tribe that was involved in peace talks with Korvosa prior to the king’s
murder. One old shaman was particularly
level-headed and friendly, Neolandus says, a man named Thousand Bones from a
place in the Cinderlands known as the Kallow Mounds—about fifty miles east of
the city of Kaer Maga and several days’ ride from Korvosa.
The Harrowed Heroes have much to ponder as they rest and try to recover from their wounds.
[Sunday, 31 Desnus 4708 A.R.]
In the morning,
the group discuss what to do. Goldcape
is not happy that The Reckoner made a bargain with Vencarlo’s killer, but says
that she can bring Vencarlo back to life (though perhaps not in the same body)
once she obtains some rare magical oils and herbs. Yraelzin says his prayers to Razmir have been
answered, as he’s intuited the mystical means to communicate at a great
distance with those he knows. The group
discuss whether anyone in Korvosa could come to their aid, and conclude there
isn’t—even Field Marshal Kroft is barely holding onto her current
position. An interesting possibility
opens up when one of the wands found on the darksphinx’s body is identified as
allowing short-range magical teleportation.
Members of the group debate whether to stay and fight on Meliya’s side
or make an escape attempt. The Reckoner
and Anorak vote to stay and fight, thereby preserving the former’s secret
identity and avoiding having created yet another powerful enemy in a city
seemingly full of them. Goldcape argues
for escape, saying there’s no way to know whether they can defeat Glorio or
that, even if they do, Meliya won’t just turn on them. Yraelzin is torn, as he wants House Arkona as
long-term allies to help his “Temple of Razmir” flourish in Old Korvosa, but
he’s afraid that choosing the wrong side in Glorio’s and Meliya’s rivalry could
prove lethal.
Eventually, the group decide to stay. Seconds later, Meliya appears in the room, seemingly from out of thin air. “Good choice,” she says. “It’s time to go.”
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GM Commentary
I've just finished running Session # 95 as I write this commentary, and I had forgotten how much of a challenge Meliya was for the group. There's very, very few NPCs in the campaign that have been able to stand toe-to-toe with the entire group and come out ahead. Her high DR and AC was definitely part of it. The fact that she knew The Reckoner's secret was a heavy blow, and explains better why the group "suddenly" decide to turn on her in the next session.
I had also forgotten that she killed Vencarlo! Fortunately, the group was able to bring the man back to life--otherwise, some things in the campaign would have gone very differently.
The Neolandus exposition of course sets up Chapter Four. I wanted to make sure the PCs had all the info they needed because I had no idea which, if any, of these NPCs would live through the Vivified Labyrinth and the next few sessions.
